Review of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) by Jake C — 29 Dec 2017
The film never finds the right balance between the unbelievable and the real, between the comic jewels within this small town and the dark pain of its story. Take Woody Harrelson's police chief: How is this small town cop, whose department is filled with barely literate and admittedly racist (not to mention homophobic) mouthbreathers, so remarkably eloquent and intelligent? That fantastic element doesn't fit the rest of the frame.
His answer to their racism is that being a good cop is all about "love"-yet how loving is it to only teach them that *after* you die, *after* the cop has thrown someone out a window and brutally tortured a POC? Oh, and let's get to that: The movie is racist.
Not just the cops in the movie; the movie itself. All the suffering experienced by the black characters means nothing to them-they just bounce back with a smile, la-di-da, here I am back from a false arrest without another word to say for it-rather, it only occurs for the benefit of the white characters.
And even then, the white characters don't quite grow from it, their redemption remaining utterly repugnant.
This review of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) was written by Jake C on 29 Dec 2017.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has generally received very positive reviews.
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